Relax That Heart

Beta-blocker drugs now help congestive heart failure as well as hypertension and heart attack

Doctors are doing such a good job of saving the lives of heart-attack victims that a whole new problem has surfaced: many of the survivors are left with severely damaged hearts. That has contributed to an increase in cases of congestive heart failure, an often debilitating condition in which the muscle is too weak to pump enough blood to the rest of the body and eventually exhausts itself. This ailment is growing more common not only because of doctors' success in saving heart-attack patients but also because of other factors, including an aging population. What it all adds up to is...

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